India's foreign reserves down by near $93 mn

Mumbai: India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves went down by USD 92.8 million to USD 296.53 billion for the week ended Dec 21, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

The reserves had gone up by USD 1.63 billion to USD 296.63 billion for the week ended Dec 14.

The foreign currency assets (FCA) - the biggest component of the forex reserves - decreased by USD 169.9 million at USD 261.94 billion, according to the weekly statistical supplement released by the RBI.

The FCA was up USD 1.61 billion to USD 262.11 billion in the previous week.

The central bank said FCA in US dollar terms included the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies held in reserve, such as the pound sterling, euro and yen.

Gold reserves value remained the same at USD 27.80 billion. The value had dipped by USD 386.2 million in the week ended Nov 30. The value had remained unchanged at USD 28.18 billion since the week ended Nov 2, when the value of gold reserves rose by USD 56.4 million.

The special drawing rights (SDRs) increased by USD 15.8 million to USD 4.45 billion during the week under review, while reserves with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were up by USD 61.3 million to USD 2.33 billion.

The SDRs had increased by USD 15.4 million to USD 4.43 billion during the week ended Dec 14 while reserves with the IMF had gone up USD 7.8 million to USD 2.27 billion.